Six Years of Pain

By Sarah M., Marietta, GA

I was seven years old. I was sitting in the waiting room, waiting on my name to be called. I’d been sitting there freezing cold for thirty minutes, while I had been shaking and my teeth were chattering. The nurse walks in and says, “Sarah Moore”. I stood up and walked slowly to the door. As I walked down the hallway it felt like an icebox that had been sterilized. I sat on the cold metal table. The nurse gave me a light blue wrap. Then took me to an x-ray room. Where I stood against a cold metal block attached to the wall. I held my breath 1, 2, 3. It was done.

After that was done the doctor had my mom come in. The x-ray showed a minor curve in my back, and that I had a chest cold. So the doctors advised my mom to take me to see a specialist in scoliosis. So the next week my mom took me to Childrens Orthopedics of Atlanta. There they took a second x-ray of my back. This one showed that I had a seventeen-degree curve in my back. So the doctor told my mom that we would keep an eye on it and to come back in three months. My mom told the doctors that she did not want me to have surgery unless absolutely needed. That was mainly because when she was twelve she had surgery on her back.

I spent the next three weeks worrying about how I was going to deal with scoliosis. I felt proud because I knew that this was something my mom had, had yet scared because I was unsure what to do. When we went back to the doctors they took a third x-ray. Now showing that I had thirty-six-degree curve in my back. The doctors automatically said that I had to go into a Boston Back Brace. That was when I met Mr. Larry. He was funny but yet still strict. He always made me laugh when I saw him.

The first time I had an appointment with him, he talked to my mom and I about what it was going to take to wear the brace affectively. The next time I saw Mr. Larry, he started measuring and casting me for the brace. When he started casting me I could feel the plaster squeezing my already tiny waist to two inches smaller than it already was. After a few minutes the plaster started to feel like it was burning me. I was not happy.

Two weeks later I came back in and he had the brace back from Boston. It was almost as big as I was. Mr. Larry had me put it on. I could feel the high piece cutting off the circulation to my left arm. I couldn’t even sit up. I felt like a wheeble that wobbled but didn’t fall down. After I caught my balance Mr. Larry made marks on the brace so that he could cut it down to fit. A week and a half later Mr. Larry had the brace ready for me. When he handed it to me I felt as if he was handing me the rest of my life. When I got home my mom tried to put my brace on me. I through myself in the floor, and cried for hours. After two months of crying I decided to cooperate.

After five years of wearing the brace I got the news that I could possibly be getting out of the brace for good. I was so happy I screamed and jumped for joy. I wore my brace for a few weeks and then it became to small. So then my mom called the doctor and he said for me to try to keep wearing the brace, but to move up my appointment. My mom moved the appointment to a week away.

When we arrived at the doctors office I had a light jacket on and a water bottle in my hand. I sat there listing to my iPod. Thirty minutes later the nurse called my name to come back. I went back and then they took an x-ray of my back. When the doctors came back they said that they would have to take an x-ray of my hand to see if my bone were mature enough to take me out for good. When the x-ray of my hand came back the doctor said I was ready to come out of the brace for good. I was so amazed.

The words I had waited six years to hear I had finally heard and I could barely comprehend them. It was like some one was playing a bad joke on me. After wearing the brace for six years my heart had built a wall of stone and steal around itself to keep all the pain I felt out.

Now that I’m finally out that wall doesn’t have to be so high. My mom was there every step of the way. Wearing the brace made me mentally and physically stronger I chose to write about this because it was the most traumatic six years of my life. I feel that a heart can only block out so much for so long.

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